A Duet for Piano & Violin
by Little Acorns
Summary: AU- The Adler Orchestra is a small, hardworking, and dedicated group. When a new pianist joins- one that's famous, and has a bit of a reputation- it could bring the whole thing crashing down- and one person in particular. Seblaine, bits of Klaine.
1. Chapter 1

A.N- I am not a musician, nor do I presume to be so. I have no experience of being in an Orchestra, large or small. I understand that the songs I have the Orchestra play here are pretty much impossible for an Orchestra so small to pull off, so I'd like to ask you all for a little leeway here. I'll have links to any songs mentioned at the end of the chapters. And realistically, 24-26 is pretty young to be as accomplished as I make out these guys all to be, so again, if you could exercise some flexibility, that'd be awesome. Also, I don't own Glee.

1

The new pianist was a big deal- it was always going to be a big deal, replacing Jesse St James (now of Hollywood score-composing fame), but when Shuester, the conductor, had told them just who they'd somehow gotten to be in the 'hardest working 13-piece orchestra in North America' (No, really, it had said so in their review in the New York Times), well, the place had exploded. Everyone had been excited at first _thrilled_, even, at the prospect of working with someone that famous. It wasn't that they all weren't known, in certain circles- after all, the Adler Orchestra was pretty famous… well, famous to aficionados of classical music- but this was Sebastian Smythe. Sebastian Smythe, the musical prodigy. He'd played his first professional show when he was 8. He'd been touring the world ever since then, never mind America. The guy was super-famous, and super-rich to go along with it. No one could get their heads around why he'd even think to audition for their little ragtag (they were ragtag, but they were talented, too) group.

See, the Adler Orchestra was an independent orchestra that spent pretty much every day of the year travelling. They toured pretty much every town in America, and often more than once in a year. The best part of the year was the 2 weeks they'd spend in New York, getting to hit the town when they weren't rehearsing.

The orchestra was like a family- they had their tour bus, and everyone pretty much lived in everyone else's pockets. Its half the reason pretty much everyone there was dating someone else from the orchestra- what's the point in falling for someone when you'd only get to see them twice a year? Will Shuester was the exception there- his fiance Emma came with them, but thank God she did, because she was the only one on the whole bus that had the ability to make everyone get along, when things were playing up.

And now, their family was changing. The new guy, Sebastian Smythe, he already had everything they were all working for- to be recognised for their talent, to be able to live off of playing music (make a proper living- Everyone in the A.O lived 365 days in a hotel room, so God help them if they ever wanted to settle down. Thankfully this was a long way off, as the rigors of living constantly on the road pretty much made this gig a young-people only kind of a deal).

Despite this mystery as to why he was joining, everyone was excited. This was going to get them recognised, it was going to get the Orchestra attention. Not to mention that they'd get to play with one of the most recognisable names on the scene.

And then they found out, about two days ago, the circumstances under which Sebastian had joined. He'd been invited to join, by Figgins and Sylvester- the main benefactors of the Orchestra. Sylvester had decided that she wanted them to have 'Star Power', and Figgins was willing to back that power up with a cool $50,000 signing bonus. That was why Sebastian had joined- they'd paid up and stroked his ego (according to Santana Lopez, the Viola player). To say that everyone else- the people working their asses off in the orchestra for a lousy $25,000 a year- were resenting the situation would have been an understatement. Rachel Berry, the 1st flautist, was fuming.

"Unacceptable!" She'd been on another rant about it when _he_ walked in.

Blaine was sitting next to his boyfriend, Kurt Hummel (2nd flautist), and had a clear view of the man's entrance. He was quiet as he entered, wearing casual clothes –fawn coloured straight legged jeans, a white cotton t-shirt and a forest green cardigan, with some canvas sneakers- and when he heard Rachel's outburst, Blaine noticed his shoulders hunch forward minutely, almost protectively. That was for a millisecond, if that, because Shuester had seen Sebastian's entrance, and was on him like white on rice.

"Everyone! I'd like to give a special welcome to the Adler Orchestra's newest star, Sebastian Smythe!"

The applause here was warm enough, and like a switch had been flicked, Sebastian straightened up and suddenly became this tall, lean.. well, _something_. Whatever it was, it was a million miles away from the guy he'd seen not even four seconds before, because this was confidence bordering on arrogance.

"Now, I'm sure you're all well aware of Sebastian and Sebastian, by now you've hopefully had a chance to familiarise yourself with all of us and the way we work, so, why don't we just get straight to it?" Shuester was, as always, enthusiastic to the point of irritation, but Sebastian kept his cool the whole time he was speaking.

"Sure." Was the first thing he said.

As Shuester was calling everyone to his or her places in the rehearsal space, Blaine watched Sebastian.

The newcomer sat at the grand piano with what Blaine was sure was relief, and he just sat for a moment with his hands brushing lightly up and down the keys, eyes intent on the instrument in front of him. Sebastian was breathing slowly, and seemed to be mouthing something. Blaine focused intently for a moment, trying to make out what he was saying, but then was snapped out of it as Kurt spoke to him.

"Better get back to your seat, babe. Wouldn't want you to get in trouble in front of the 'new star'." Kurt was sarcastic as he said that, and Blaine smiled at him before moving back to his seat next to Tina Cohen-Chang, the 2nd Violinist.

He knew how much Kurt resented the special treatment Sebastian was getting, but Blaine didn't see it that way. Sebastian was.. well, Sebastian Smythe. He was 24 years old, and single-handedly making classical music cool again. His charm and good looks and mystery meant that he had hoardes of screaming fangirls that could rival any boyband's, and the media world adored him. If the A.O had to splash out a little extra cash to pull him in, then the more power to them, Blaine thought.

"As the new member, Sebastian, what would you like to lead us in with?" Shuester grinned at Sebastian, who again, took the man's enthusiasm in his stride.

"How about the Piano Concerto No.2? by Chopin? In F Minor1." Sebastian gave everyone a quick glance to see if they were alright with his selection. Everyone there knew it, and there were no objections being raised, even though Blaine just knew that on the inside more than a couple of them would have something to say about him choosing a piano concerto to start off on. (He was right, too. That night, Kurt hadn't shut up about the 'desperate need to show off'. Blaine had thought that maybe that was a little much, considering it was Kurt speaking, because as much as he loved him, Kurt was more than a little showy.)

Shuester gave the count, and the song started, Blaine, Tina, (Violins) Santana (Viola) and Mike (Cello) starting up slow. Finn joined in on the timpani, and Blaine could feel the excitement begin to rise up in his stomach. Once the brass (Puck on tuba and Sam on trumpet) had joined, and finally the woodwind instruments joined (Kurt and Rachel on the flute, Quinn on the oboe, and Brittany on clarinet), Blaine felt at home in the song. He knew it well enough that once he got into the 'feel' of it, as it were, he could basically play it out by instinct. This left him free to do his second favourite thing- watch his friends as they all played. They were all arranged in a fairly tight semi-circle, so Blaine had a clear view of everybody: There was Rachel, posture-perfect, staring intently at the sheet-music in front of her, making sure that everything was as it should be. And then Kurt, much like Rachel, sitting to attention, his pink lips pursed over his instrument elegantly. Quinn, like a serene goddess, eyes closed and totally composed. Next to her was Brittany, who just enjoyed playing, to be honest, and usually sat with a huge grin on her face when she wasn't physically playing, like at this moment. Artie sat in his chair, mostly observing here, because Chopin didn't have much space for classical guitar in his concertos. Artie met his eyes with a smile, knowing to just enjoy the show. Next was Puck and Sam. Puck was hunched over his tuba, playing with gusto, while Sam was red in the cheeks from the effort, but his eyes never strayed from his sheet music. Finn was just behind them, playing a little too enthusiastically as usual, his long limbs flailing dangerously. They were all used to his, and Finn had learnt to dial it down during the actual performances, so they usually let him go wild in rehearsals. On Blaine's right was Tina, the smiling angel. Seriously, she was never unhappy, and never happier than when she was playing with Mike, who was wrapped around his cello, head bent down next to his hand intently. Then there was Santana, who divided her attention between what she was playing, and what Shuester was doing. She could do her own damn thing in life, but, as she would say "my abuela told me to watch my conductor, so I'mma watch my conductor." Lastly was Sebastian. Thank god he was last, because frankly, Blaine wouldn't mind if he never looked away. He was playing intently, hands flying over the keys, long, elegant fingers in constant motion. His shoulders were completely loose, almost fluid, and his face held a look of utmost concentration, a slight crease between his eyebrows as he watched what he was doing. And as for the actual playing? It was magical. As he'd said, everyone in the orchestra was amazing (they were professional musicians, after all) but Blaine couldn't remember the last time he'd seen anyone play like this- it was so emotional, felt so personal.

When the song came to an end, Sebastian let out a long slow breath, and sat with his eyes closed for a moment, taking in the feeling. Blaine often did much the same thing- when you pull off something, no matter how big or how small, sometimes you just need to pause to appreciate it.

"All right! Guys! That was incredible! Awesome job! Thank you all so much! And Sebastian- oh my God? Am I right guys?" Shuester, as always, broke the moment, but it was fine, really, because he was so nice about it.

"I think you could all do with a break! Well done, guys, and take ten."

Blaine rose, placing his violin carefully back in the case, and then went to speak to Sebastian, who was still at the piano, taking to Shuester.

"Uh, hi. Sorry to interrupt." Blaine said tenatatively.

Sebastian turned around, but smiled a little when he saw Blaine standing there. "No problem at all."

"I'm Blaine Anderson." Blaine said, a little lamely. He'd come over to tell Sebastian how much he'd loved his playing, but that seemed a little stupid, considering he'd probably been hearing all his life how amazing his playing is.

Sebastian quirked an eyebrow at Blaine, which Blaine found incredibly sexy, before introducing himself. "Sebastian Smythe. So, you're first violin?"

"Yeah." Blaine smiled, a little proudly, it must be said.

"You're good. Really good. Although you'd be better if you'd actually payed some more attention to the music, rather than to your players."

Blaine would have been offended at this (ok, he was a little) but he had been daydreaming while he played, so he took the criticism with little comment.

"I played perfectly well, even with the divided attention."

Sebastian smiled at that. He even added a cocky little chuckle that Blaine couldn't help but imagine in the bedroom.

"I already said you were good. But imagine what you could be like if you weren't undressing pianists with your eyes while you played." Sebastian outright smirked, causing Blaine to blush even more.

"I.. I, uh.. wasn't.." He started to defend himself, but Sebastian cut him off.

"Don't be embarrassed. Really. Anytime you wanna undress me, all you gotta do is ask."

Blaine blushed even harder, and his torment tripled when he heard Kurt's voice from just behind him.

"Who's undressing who, now?" Kurt's hand slipped through Blaine's arm, and he stood closer than normal, clearly staking his claim.

Before Sebastian could say anything that would get him into even more trouble (and from his face he could tell he was about to), Blaine spoke.

"Sebastian, this is my boyfriend, Kurt Hummel. Kurt, this is Sebastian."

"A pleasure." Kurt didn't go to shake Sebastian's offered hand, and his tone of derision put the nail in the coffin of civility.

"Wish I could say the same to you." Sebastian said coldly to Kurt, standing up and fishing a packet of cigarettes out of his jeans pocket. He turned to Blaine. "You however, we've got to do this again." And with a wink, he walked out of the rehearsal space, lighting his cigarette on the way out the door.

"What an asshole." Kurt said, dragging Blaine back over to where Rachel and Finn were talking.

"Yeah.." Blaine said, but he couldn't take his eyes off of where the pianist had just left. "A total asshole."

* The song- .com/watch?v=zhUrGHB0aY


	2. Chapter 2

2

The next day at rehearsals, Sebastian didn't speak to anyone. He had showed up just soon enough to not be considered late, and then sat at the piano in silence, waiting for the rehearsal to begin in earnest. Kurt was sitting to Blaine's right today, and Blaine heard him scoff as Sebastian started brushing his fingers over the piano keys again.

"Pretentious asshole."

Blaine didn't say anything, but he thought that was a little harsh. After all, more than a few of the musicians in the room had little superstitions and rituals they performed before they started playing, Blaine included. For Blaine, it was wiping his violin down with the silk handkerchief his Grandfather had given him when he got the seat in the Orchestra. Sebastian clearly just did that- whatever it was, because he'd started mouthing words again- to get in the zone, as it were.

"Hey! Alright, everyone ready for a full day's work? I've got something I want to try out today." Shuester said, heading to his seat in front of everyone, passing out a new score as he went.

"Another piano concerto, of course." Kurt said dryly as he passed the music to Blaine.

"There's something for everyone here, its really not so bad." Blaine whispered back. "Besides, Sebastian didn't pick this out." He felt the need to defend the pianist, despite the exchange yesterday. Sebastian had looked off when he'd come in, and even the way he was sitting now, waiting to start playing, he didn't seem the same as he had yesterday.

He was torn out of his thoughts when Shuester spoke up again.

"Ok, Brass- I want to start off bold- and the tempo has to be right on point. Flutes, make sure you keep it smooth and light, but don't loose the intensity. Rachel, you can handle your parts in this, right? Strings, keep it tight. Finn- make sure you stay in control for this one, I don't want it to get sloppy back there. And Sebastian- make it big, and dark."

Everyone nodded, taking in Shuester's pointers and raising their instruments, calming down and focusing. Blaine saw Sebastian nod, but it was short, and serious.

Shuester counted them in, and Blaine had to return his attention to the front of the room now, lest he screw up the intro. They started, and barely 4 seconds into it, they were starting again because it wasn't good enough. At least in the intro, it was everyone but the piano, so Sebastian sat at the piano with his hands poised, waiting for his cue to start playing. Around the third time they started again, Sebastian's expression began to grow darker as he got more impatient to play.

After about 20 minutes of making sure the introduction was perfect, Sebastian finally got to playing, and it was thunderous- his hands were pounding the keys, punishing the piano for his having to wait so long. He got about two minutes from there, and Sam screwed up on the trumpet.

"Alright- Sam, you know what you did wrong? Good, now fix it. Alright- from the top!" Shuester called out, and everyone in the room fought to suppress a sigh.

By the time they were able to stop for a break, it was one in the afternoon. Blaine's hands were cramped, and everyone in the room was feeling short-tempered. Shuester kept pushing this piece, wanting to play it at the show tonight, and the pressure was mounting. Sebastian's playing even got so angry sounding that Shuester had told him to tone it down, to which the thin piano player had given another terse nod, and said nothing more.

Blaine was sitting and eating in a group with Kurt, Rachel and Finn, and Sebastian was the topic of conversation.

"I can't believe he's acting this way. I tried to speak to him before, and he didn't say a word to me! Its so rude." Rachel was ranting.

"I'd rather he not say anything to me- he was awful yesterday when we spoke to him, and he was hitting on Blaine right in front of me!" Kurt joined in, sounding outraged.

"Kurt, he wasn't actually hitting on me. It was just a joke." Blaine defended Sebastian again, but he wasn't sure he believed what he was saying- Sebastian's flirting had seemed pretty genuine. It was just that it seemed wrong for everyone to hate the guy so much without really giving him a chance. Blaine looked over at where Sebastian was sitting, on his own by the window, talking intensely on his mobile phone. Kurt followed his gaze.

"Geez, what's got him so riled up?"

Because he really was angry, whoever he was talking to. His eyes were cold, and his jaw was set, as he hissed down the phone line, gesticulating wildly with his free hand, holding a cigarette that was burning steadily down to the filter. Blaine noticed the dark shadows around his eyes, thinking that maybe something might have been seriously wrong. He was about to say as much, when Sebastian stopped speaking for a moment, listening to the person on the other end of the line with a face like stone.

"Uh-oh, whatever's going on, he doesn't like it." Kurt stage-whispered, not even trying to hade the fact that they were all watching Sebastian, who's eyes flicked up to the group, realising that he had their attention, and he turned his back to them Blaine felt like maybe they should try and give him his privacy, but he was too curious to not keep watching. Especially when Sebastian's shoulders tensed up, and his voice began to rise.

"I don't care, Joe! Don't give me any fucking excuses! You screwed up, now FIX IT!" Sebastian ended up practically screaming that last part, catching the attention of everyone in the room, killing all conversations as the entire orchestra turned to stare at him. Sebastian realised this, as he met the eye of everyone who was currently staring, but he offered no explanation, he just raised his cigarette to his lips and took a long, deep drag, running a hand through his hair in frustration. He ignored everybody after that, just kept smoking and reading a tattered old paperback novel, not caring that through the rest of the break, people kept sneaking him curious glances.

"What the hell do you think that was about?" Finn asked the group.

Blaine shrugged. "Beats me, but it sounds serious."

Kurt nodded. "Yeah. Whoever 'Joe' is, I'd hate to be him right now."

"Sebastian sounds like a mean guy to work for." Finn said innocently.

"Sebastian seems like a mean guy to know." Kurt muttered darkly, but thankfully the small group left it at that, talking about the piece again until they were called back up to their positions.

That night's performance was electric, even if Blaine did say so himself- the Piano Concerto (Tchaikosvsky's Piano Concero No.1) was pulled together in the nick of time, and everyone more than did their part with it. Sebastian was amazing in it- he'd disappeared for a couple of hours before they were due to go on, but whatever he did in that time, it clearly helped him to reign in his anger and impatience enough to imbue the piece with a power and urgency that really made it work, as a whole.

As much as it must have pained him, even Kurt admitted that he was good.

"I still don't like him, though." He said, as he watched Sebastian through the bus window. Sebastian was puffing away at another cigarette, tuxedo collar turned up against the cold night air.

"Where do you think he went, after rehearsals?" Blaine wondered.

Kurt shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe that phone call today was a drugs thing- maybe that's where he went. He's a child-celebrity, they're always taking drugs. And he certainly calmed down, from wherever he went."

Blaine could tell Kurt was mostly joking, and so didn't respond to the comment, turning the conversation away from the mysterious piano player, for at least one night.

Song- .com/watch?v=wVvaDWumVIo&feature=channel&list=UL


	3. Chapter 3

3.

The third day that Sebastian Smythe was with the Orchestra was what they all called a 'Travelling day'. It was pretty much exactly how it sounded. The A.O would arrive in a town, stay a couple of days (usually two days, with a performance on the night of the second day) and then they'd spend a day on the Orchestra's coach. Travelling days were where the Orchestra's members were often in a strange kind of limbo. They were stuck together in a small space for hours on end, people doing what they liked, often sleeping, reading a book, playing card games (No one could match Santana in poker anymore, and everyone but Brittany had long stopped trying.)

Blaine usually spent his time on the bus chatting quietly, but Kurt was asleep at the moment, and everyone else around him was busy. Well, almost everyone.

Sebastian was sitting on his own towards the front of the bus, starting absently out the window as the country flew past, on the way to Washington. Blaine thought for a moment about leaving it, after all, Sebastian hadn't been particularly chatty yesterday- perhaps he didn't want to talk to anyone? Would Blaine be interrupting, making a nuisance of himself if he went over to say hi?

He almost didn't do it, but then he remembered Sebastian's words to him from the first day, and the fact that he'd been happy enough to talk then.

Decision made, Blaine stood up and made his way to Sebastian's seat.

"Uh, hi?"

Sebastian was snapped out of his thoughts and turned to see who was speaking to him. When he saw it was Blaine, he smiled.

"Hello."

Well, so far so good. Blaine forced himself to speak in a light tone, hoping he sounded friendly and casual.

"Do you mind if I sat with you?"

Sebastian's eyebrows roes minutely, but he waved his hand at the free seat.

"Feel free."

Blaine sat, and then realized he hadn't really thought of what he was going to say past asking to sit with the pianist. Luckily, Sebastian took over the conversation.

"What brings you down to this part of the bus?" He managed to make this sound like a pick-up line, a smirk playing on the corners of his mouth as he leaned in closer to Blaine.

Blaine chuckled nervously, trying to blow the flirtatious tone of the conversation off. "Kurt's asleep, and I was bored. I figured I'd come say hi."

"Oh? So you couldn't come and say hi to me if the boyfriend was awake? I know he wouldn't approve." Sebastian rolled his eyes, his tone dryer than a moment ago.

Blaine knew that technically he was right. Kurt wouldn't like Blaine talking to Sebastian. He didn't like Sebastian already, and after hearing Sebastian hitting on Blaine after that first rehearsal, that dislike had grown into a strange sort of resentment. But he wasn't going to tell Sebastian that.

"What? No, Kurt likes you fine." His tone wasn't exactly convincing, but maybe Sebastian wouldn't notice?

No luck. Sebastian's eyebrows rose again, skeptically.

"Why would you think that he doesn't like you?" Blaine tried again.

"I've heard everyone here talking about me. I know no-one in this orchestra likes me. You don't need to lie about it." Sebastian said calmly.

Oh. Blaine didn't know what to say to that. His cheeks flushed with shame, feeling awful about letting Kurt and Rachel talk about Sebastian like they did.

"I like you." He said quietly, not wanting to look at Sebastian, but doing it anyway.

Sebastian was looking ahead, trying to school his features into indifference, but at Blaine's words, he snuck a sideways glance at him, a smile growing on his face.

"Well.. That's good, then." His voice was a little shyer than normal, and he seemed warmer than before.

Blaine smiled back, holding his gaze, but then Sebastian looked back out the window, breaking the eye contact and settling back into the seat, apparently fine with not talking now.

Blaine patted Sebastian's shoulder in a gesture of friendship, or at least blossoming friendship, before standing up and going back to his seat next to Kurt, feeling an unexpected sense of pleasure over the exchange.

That night, Kurt and Blaine were settling down into their hotel room, chatting idly, when there was a knock on the door.

"I'll get it." Blaine called over his shoulder to Kurt, who was in the bathroom setting up his beauty and hair products.

When Blaine answered the door, he thought that it'd be Rachel, or even Santana, but instead he found Sebastian.

"Hey!" Blaine said in surprise, smiling at the visitor.

"Uh, hey." Sebastian seemed almost nervous, and he kept looking past Blaine, presumably to see if Kurt was there too.

"He's in the bathroom." Blaine supplied.

"Oh. Cool. Well, do-do you mind if I come in?" Sebastian asked, looking unsure, like he didn't want to overstep his boundaries with Blaine.

"Yeah, of course!" Blaine stepped aside to let the taller guy into the room, although now that he was inside, Sebastian was just standing there awkwardly, looking at the bed that was covered with Kurt's clothes, and then at the table that held both Kurt's flute case and Blaine's violin case.

"What's up?" Blaine asked, after a moment of waiting for Sebastian to speak again.

"Oh, well, to be honest, nothing is really 'up'.. I was just in my room, bored, and I guess I was just going to see of you wanted to hang out." Sebastian shrugged, and held up a bottle of red wine that was in his hand. "I brought drinks?"

Blaine grinned. "Yeah, I'd love to hang out. Do you wanna stay in here, or shall we go somewhere nice?"

Sebastian was about to answer, when Kurt stepped out from the bathroom, and came to a standstill, seeing who was in his room.

"Oh. Sebastian. What brings you here?" Kurt's tone was much less hostile than the last time he'd spoken to Sebastian, but it was certainly still a long way off 'friendly', and Blaine would have sworn that he saw some of the sparkle fade out of Sebastian's eyes.

"Kurt, lovely to see you again. I brought some wine by, and I thought maybe you'd like to join Blaine and I for a drink?" Sebastian was being a little more arrogant to Kurt than he was to Blaine, and Blaine realized that this was his defense mechanism.

It made sense- when you're always in the media, having your every move scrutinized, it's probably easier to put on a mask like that than it would be to admit to the press and the millions of people reading and watching that maybe you were just a little weaker than you seemed. Especially when you'd been living with that scrutiny and the pressure of expectation you were 8.

"Oh, I didn't realize that you and Blaine had made plans?" Kurt turned to Blaine with a question in his eyes, and no small amount of fire, and Blaine knew that he was going to get an earful from Kurt later about this.

"Sebastian just mentioned it not a minute ago. I thought it would be nice. You should come!" Blaine insisted, putting on his cheery naïve face, trying to show Kurt that it was fine, and that he should give Sebastian a chance, without actually having to say it out loud.

"Oh, but Blaine, Rachel and Finn invited us out for dinner, remember?" Kurt's expression was pointed, and Blaine was certain that there was no such invitation to dinner.

"Oh, well, maybe another time then." Sebastian nodded resignedly, and turned to leave the room.

Kurt was saying "Yes, goodbye Sebastian." at the same time as Blaine was saying "Sebastian, hold on a minute!"

Sebastian turned back to face Blaine, and Blaine saw a glimmer of hope in his eyes that made up his mind for him.

Blaine turned to Kurt. "Look, Kurt- can you give Rachel and Finn my apologies, but I think I'm going to go out with Sebastian tonight. Alright?" Blaine's voice was light and pleasant, and Blaine knew that he was forcing Kurt's hand here, but at that moment, he didn't feel too badly about it. Kurt was being horrible to Sebastian, and Blaine wanted no part of that. Sebastian had been nice to him- even though he was a little flirtatious on their first meeting- and Blaine wanted to be friends with him. He felt sorry for Sebastian too, out here on the road he had no one, and the others in the orchestra were being like Kurt and trying to exclude him, all because of something that was really not that big of a deal. Blaine felt like Sebastian deserved to have someone on his side, even if Kurt did end up yelling at him for it later.

"Fine, sure. Have fun, Blaine." Kurt said with a tight smile, and a cold tone in his voice. Blaine had given him no other option than to say 'yes'- to say anything else would have been being openly rude to Sebastian, and Kurt had no reason to do that, and without a cause, Kurt was always meticulously polite.

Kurt then turned without saying anything to Sebastian (one concession to rudeness, then) and marched out the door, leaving Blaine and Sebastian behind with an awkward silence growing.

"I'm sorry about that." Blaine said, embarrassment coloring his cheeks.

"No- thank you. You didn't have to do that though. I mean, I didn't want to cause any drama." Sebastian shifted the wine bottle from hand to hand, and Blaine couldn't help but watch the movement- Sebastian's hands were mesmerizing, regardless of if they were juggling a wine bottle or expertly maneuvering across a piano, apparently.

"Sebastian, I'm really sorry that Kurt and everyone is being like this." Blaine blurted out, suddenly feeling the need to mention the elephant in the room.

"Oh. Yeah. Its not your fault." Sebastian's forehead creased as he looked down at the bottle in his hands. "So… do you know why they don't like me?" Sebastian's voice was soft and a little vulnerable, and Blaine once again felt awful for the behavior of his friends.

"I thought you heard them all talking?" Blaine asked.

Sebastian nodded, finally looking at Blaine. "I hear what they say about me- comments and stuff. I just don't know what I did to cause the comments."

"Oh." Blaine sighed, running his fingers through his hair, loosening the curls from the gel. "Well, its stupid-"

"Please, just tell me." Sebastian sighed too, and sat next to Blaine on the bed.

"Well, they're angry because of how much you're getting paid. They're worried about favoritism from Shuester, because you're.. well, you. And, I guess, maybe, a little bit of hurt pride, too?" Blaine shrugged.

"What?" Sebastian sounded confused.

"Well, we're a pretty close-knit bunch, here. You kind of have to be, living how we live." Blaine explained.

Sebastian nodded, showing that he was following.

"And we're all fairly evenly matched, as far as talent goes, and we're pretty good. We're proud of our Orchestra, and what we can do."

Sebastian nodded again, meeting Blaine's eyes.

"So, when we heard that you were joining- well, like I said, you're YOU, so, to us, the fact that you wanted to be in our orchestra, and had auditioned and stuff, it was kind of awesome. We thought it was a sign, or something, that we had made it. And then when we heard how you'd actually come to us- you know, that you were invited without an audition, and that you're getting nearly double what we're getting, it kind of felt like it was cheapening what we saw as an honor, I suppose." Blaine shrugged again. "Its stupid, but.. There you go."

There was silence for a moment before Sebastian started laughing.

"What?" Blaine said, a little roughly, because he wasn't sure if Sebastian was laughing at him or not.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! You really think that Shuester and Figgins BOUGHT me in?"

"Its not that stupid.." Blaine grumbled defensively.

"Blaine, babe- The tour I did before this? I got seventy-five MILLION dollars for it! Fifty thousand dollars is barely enough to get me to play at someone's birthday party, if I don't want to go. I'm in this Orchestra because I want to be." Sebastian explained, still grinning and chuckling.

"Really?" Blaine asked, a smile growing on his own face.

"Yeah. Look- I've been playing and touring since I was 8. But that also means I've never hung out with people my own age before. I don't have any proper friends. My closest friend before you was my manager, LeRoy. This orchestra is incredible to me. People having fun, but still getting to play music? I've never had an opportunity to just enjoy it before. That's why I called and asked Shuester myself if I could join, once I heard that Jesse St James was leaving." Sebastian grinned again at the look of shock that was on Blaine's face at hearing all of that.

"Oh. I never thought about it that way." Was all Blaine could find to say.

"Yeah, obviously." Sebastian rolled his eyes at Blaine, earning him another smile.

"Now, c'mon- there's a bar down the street I wanna check out. I heard they made a mean gin and tonic."

Blaine looked at what Sebastian was wearing- black straight legged jeans, a grey button-down and a so-well-fitted-it-must-be-custom-made leather jacket, and then down at what he was wearing- grey sweats and his old Juilliard t-shirt, and then indicated to Sebastian to hold on a sec, as he ran to get changed into something a little more appropriate.

He emerged wearing blue jeans, and a red plaid shirt under a white knitted sweater, and grinned at Sebastian, who had apparently decided to pass the time waiting by swigging directly from the bottle of wine he'd brought with him.

At Blaine's grin, Sebastian returned with a raised eyebrow of his own and the bottle held out before him.

"Want some?"

Blaine laughed, but took the offered bottle with a deep swig as they both headed out the door and into the night.

When they passed Rachel and Finn's room, Blaine was Sebastian were both laughing loudly, causing Kurt, who was sitting on the end of the bed with Rachel, helping her to paint her nails, to scowl.


	4. Chapter 4

4

The bar (Stix, it was called) was well on its way to being full by the time Sebastian and Blaine got there, but they got to jump the cue, thanks to Sebastian 'having a quick word' with the bouncer- literally just a word, Sebastian was quick to correct him. The bottle of wine they had downed in the lobby of the hotel had gone straight to their heads, and the short walk over to Stix had been filled with giggling and bad sexual innuendoes.

Sebastian went up to the bar to get the first round, and Blaine went to find them some seats. The bar was filled with people, some dancing, but most just standing around talking, and Blaine found a table with two seats towards the back of the bar, and the music was dulled in that corner, so by the time Sebastian returned, they were able to chat and drink easily.

They passed some time making snide (or in Blaine's case, not-quite-as-snide) comments about some of the people around them (such as the couple who were basically about to start fornicating on the dance floor, making everyone around them very uncomfortable), and Blaine sipped his drink, wincing as the strong flavour of alcohol hit his tongue.

"What is this?" He sputtered, making Sebastian laugh.

"A gin and tonic." The taller guy shrugged, but he kept smiling mischievously.

"This isn't just a gin and tonic! What did you do to it?" Blaine demanded, although the buzz was still hitting him in full force, and the impact of his demand was somewhat lessened by the grin that kept sliding onto his face.

"It may be a double." Sebastian shrugged. "Or a triple. I can't remember what I asked for."

"Seb!" Blaine exclaimed, half laughing. "You're gonna kill me!"

"Oh please, Blaine. Its not that bad. Man up." Sebastian snickered.

"Oh really? Well, fine. If its not that bad, you drink this one and I'll have yours." Blaine reached across the table and put his (very nearly toxic) drink in front of Sebastian, and went to grab Seb's drink for himself, but the pianist snatched it up and held it safely away from Blaine before he got to it.

"No! This is my drink! Now, drink up Blainey-boy, or I'll be offended. I was being nice, just trying to be a good friend by buying you a drink, and now you're gonna be ungrateful?" Sebastian smirked and even winked at Blaine, and Blaine would have blushed at the overt flirtation, but he'd been drinking quite a bit now, and he was quite flirtatious himself when he was tipsy.

"Aw, Seb. I thought you were just trying to get me drunk so you could seduce me. I didn't know this was a friend thing. That's ok, then. I guess I can hold back on the sex then. You know, for the sake of our friendship."

Now Sebastian was coughing on his drink, and the look on his face was priceless, somewhere between 'I've-never-been-more-turned-on' and 'someone-stole-Christmas'.

However, it seems that Blaine's comment had stopped the comfortable flow of conversation, and the air grew a little tense again. Sebastian wasn't looking away from where he was drawing little patterns in the condensation on his glass, and Blaine didn't know what else to do but to scull his drink in one go. The alcohol burned down his throat, and was a little raspy when he spoke, but he was prepared for that, so he simply dropped the empty glass back down on the table.

"How much did a triple gin and tonic cost you, anyway?" He asked, realising that the bar they were in was one of those overpriced-drinks and a cool-atmosphere kind of places.

Sebastian snorted, and finally looked up. "Almost $20."

Blaine cracked a grin "For one joke?"

Sebastian grinned back and nodded.

"Was it worth it?" Blaine asked again, the giggles returning.

"A little, yeah." Sebastian finished his drink, and just like that, the awkward atmosphere dissipated, and the two carried on giggling like naughty schoolboys.

"I'm going to go return the favour, then." Blaine smirked at Sebastian, which caused the pianist to drop his head to the table with another snicker.

Blaine purchased Sebastian a triple-vodka-with lime, straight with no ice, and laughed the whole time as Seb tried to choke it down.

"Right. Its so on." Sebastian met Blaine's eye with a mischievous wink, and headed back over to the bar.

Over the course of that night, Blaine and Sebastian drank one bottle of the cheapest wine the bar had (it was appalling), a bottle of the most expensive champagne they had (almost $2000, and Blaine had almost cried when Sebastian returned to the table with it. Sebastian had shrugged off the expense), a quarter of a bottle of scotch, and a full bottle of gin. Then they were asked to 'leave the premises.'

Upon leaving the bar, Sebastian and Blaine noticed that there were some people taking pictures, and the flash of one particular camera caused Blaine to loose his balance, and he almost fell, until Sebastian's hand shot out and grabbed him. Blaine then realised that he had his arm flung around Sebastian's waist, and that he was tucked tightly under Sebastian's arm, and the two attempted to help each other wobble home. They made it about two streets away before one of them (neither could remember who) fell over, dragging the other down with them. In their state of intoxication, it was hilarious.

They ended up sitting on the sidewalk in front of a bakery, after that, just chatting idly about anything they wanted to, when Blaine remembered that he'd wanted to ask something.

"Oh, hey- Seb?"

"Yeah?" Sebastian replied, mumbling around the cigarette that he was trying to light.

"You remember that argument you had on the phone the other day?"

Sebastian grunted, finally getting the cigarette alight.

"Well, what was that about?" Blaine asked.

Sebastian took a deep draw of smoke in, and released it before answering.

"Stella."

Blaine was confused. "Stella? Is that... your girlfriend, or something? I thought you were gay?"

Seb peered at Blaine from the corner of his eye, a grin forming on his face. "You disappointed, babe?"

Blaine rolled his eyes and swatted playfully at the other guy's arm.

"Dude..."

Sebastian finally laughed and relented. "I am gay. Don't worry. But Stella is my piano."

"You named your piano?"

"Of course I did."

"Oh. Ok. And uh, what happened with Stella?" Blaine was curious.

"Joe was in charge of moving her. She was supposed to get cleaned, professionally, and then go back to the main house, in Seattle. And.. well, I don't know what the hell he did, but scratched her up real bad. Huge gash down the side. Apparently she still plays great, but that's so not the point." Sebastian scowled, as if Joe was right there in front of him.

"And who's Joe?" Blaine asked, watching Sebastian's hand as it rose to put his cigarette between his lips.

"Joe is LeRoy's assistant. LeRoy is my manager." Sebastian explained.

"Right. And... is Stella going to be ok?"

Sebastian turned and beamed at Blaine when he called the piano by it's- her? name.

"Yeah, he sent her off to be fixed. Not going to be cheap, though."

Blaine nodded, and the two sat in silence, enjoying the quiet night for a little while longer, before they headed back to the hotel, and back to their own rooms.

"G'night, Seb."

"Night, Blaine." Seb offered Blaine a smile, closing the door to his hotel room.

Blaine headed back to his own room, more than a little unsteady on his feet.

He got back into the room, and found Kurt laying in bed, in the dark.

"Have a good night?" Kurt's voice was cold.

"Yeah, it was great." Blaine said through a yawn. He didn't care that Kurt was mad at him, not right then. Too drunk. Too tired. In too good a mood. He managed to throw off his shirt, and kick off his shoes before climbing straight into bed. He placed a small kiss on Kurt's shoulder, knowing that Kurt would stop being mad at him soon enough, and he felt his boyfriend next to him relax minutely.

Blaine just dropped off to sleep after that, feeling the room spin gently around him, and dreamt happily, strangely of 'A Streetcar Named Desire.'


	5. Chapter 5

A huge thank you to everyone who's reviewed and followed this story. It means a whole lot, and makes writing this all the more exciting and fun!

- Acorns

5.

Blaine woke up, and immediately wished he hadn't. Waves of nausea rolled over him, and the cloying dizziness he felt was punctuated only by the headache that was piercing through his brain.

A noise that was almost a groan made it's way from Blaine's mouth, alerting Kurt to the fact that Blaine was in fact, awake.

"Nice to see you're alive." Kurt said dryly. His voice rang in Blaine's ears, the noise making the headache double, and his stomach lurch dangerously.

"I wish I wasn't." Blaine's voice was raspy, and he barely raised it above a whisper.

He attempted to sit up, which turned out to be a huge mistake. His stomach gave another lurch, and it had Blaine out of bed and sprinting to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him, falling to his knees before the toilet, and violently emptying the contents of his stomach.

Vomiting spree over for the moment, Blaine forced himself to his feet. He was shaking all over, and he grimaced at the layer of sweat that had formed over his body.

"Are you ok?" Kurt asked, still pissy, but pity for the way Blaine must have been feeling tempered his harshness.

"I'll be fine." Blaine managed to rasp out, hoping to God it was true, because this would surely be the hangover that killed him. There was no way someone could feel the way he was feeling and actually survive it. No way in hell.

"Good, because we have rehearsals in the ballroom starting in half an hour." Kurt said, his bad mood returning now he was sure Blaine wasn't spewing blood or something.

"Oh God..." Blaine groaned, the thought of all the instruments and noise for hours making him wish to God that he could just crawl back into bed.

"It serves you right for going out with... _him_ and getting so drunk." Kurt's voice sounded far off now. 'I'll meet you down there. I'll even grab you a coffee on the way there. If you get to rehearsals a little earlier, it might even be warm."

"Bye. See you there." Blaine said, simply grateful that Kurt wasn't going to give him the silent treatment for last night.

And at least Sebastian would be in the same state as him. It sucked being the only one hung-over at a rehearsal… if there were two of them, maybe the torment would be shared out?

Blaine showered quickly, threw on some jeans, a t-shirt and an old sweater, before downing two glasses of water and a handful of painkillers, grabbing his violin off the table and heading down to the ballroom of the hotel, where rehearsals were being held.

When he got there, he found Sebastian sitting at the piano, hands resting limply by his sides, eyes shut tightly, and clearly looking pale. It also looked like he was still wearing his pyjama. top, the flannel collar sticking out from under his cable-knit sweater. Blaine smiled to himself through the hurting, and scanned the room for Kurt. He found him standing in the corner, talking to Rachel, and he hadn't noticed Blaine yet, so Blaine took the opportunity to slide in next to Sebastian on the piano stool.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, as quietly as he could.

Sebastian still started, calming down once he realised it was Blaine talking to him.

'Geez, Blaine… Are you trying to kill me?" Sebastian's eyes were still bleary.

"Nope But it feels like this hangover might just do the trick."

Sebastian nodded, wincing. "Remind me- what part of last night did we think was a good idea?"

Blaine shrugged, resting his arms on top of the piano, and his head on top of his arms.

"I don't know. I barely remember half the night. But I do remember a fight happening on the dance floor... or did I make that up?"

Sebastian laughed, and then winced at the action as it caused his head to pound. "I do remember that. That couple? The public indecency couple? I think someone tried to get them to move along..."

Blaine grinned "God, that's right! That was crazy."

They sat in silence for a moment, feeling sorry for themselves, as Kurt spotted Blaine and walked over to them with his coffee in hand.

"Here you are honey. Sebastian, how are you feeling this morning?" Strangely, Kurt's voice was void of any of the ice Blaine had been expecting, and clearly Sebastian thought much the same thing, because he was staring cautiously at Kurt, trying to find what his angle was.

"Awful. Thanks for asking." Sebastian's voice was steady, though it was easy to see that he was still on his guard.

"I'm sorry to hear that, though from the state Blaine was in last night, I can't say I'm surprised." Kurt smiled at the piano player.

"Uh, Kurt? What's going on?' Blaine had to ask, because he was too hung-over to try and figure it out himself.

Kurt sighed, looking at Blaine as he thought about what he wanted to say.

"I just want to try and be nice. I've been awful to you, Sebastian, for no real reason, and I haven't been a very supportive boyfriend to you, Blaine. I didn't mean to get pissed off at you for being friends with Sebastian. And he is your friend, so I should make an effort to get to know him- you- a little better." Kurt was sincere as he spoke, addressing both him and Sebastian, and Blaine felt his heart swell at his boyfriend's words.

"Thank you, Kurt. It means a lot." Blaine beamed up at Kurt, and Sebastian watched the interaction carefully, choosing to judge Kurt's sincerity off of Blaine's reaction. When he saw that Blaine was accepting this change in Kurt, he decided to go with it.

"Sure, Kurt. I'd like to get to know you, too. After all, any boyfriend of Blaine's must be really something."

Kurt smiled, and walked to stand on the side of the piano that Blaine was sitting at.

"So, Sebastian, are you going to be able to play with a hangover?" He asked, sipping his coffee.

"I've managed it before. Should be no problem." Sebastian shrugged.

"But will you be up to the standards that Shuester has come to expect of you? His star piano player?" Kurt's voice was casual, but Blaine didn't much like the tension that was rising in Sebastian's posture as Kurt spoke.

"I'm sure I'll be just fine. Shuester will expect just as much from me as he will from Blaine." Sebastian said. "Will you be able to handle it, Blaine?"

Blaine laughed to try and relieve the tension. "Maybe if we play something that doesn't have too many high notes." He joked.

Sebastian gave Blaine a grin, and then Kurt spoke up again.

"Maybe you could play something now, Sebastian? We haven't really heard you play properly yet, we've been too busy playing ourselves." Kurt's voice and face remained innocent, and Blaine wanted desperately to believe that he wasn't saying these things to make Sebastian nervous, but that he really meant it.

"Kurt, I don't think Sebastian really wants to play something right now.." Blaine tried to say something, but Sebastian spoke over him, his voice returning to the arrogant one he used as a defence.

"I don't see why you'd want to hear me play now, Kurt. This is an orchestra, isn't it? One for all and all for one? Aren't we all just cogs in the one big machine?"

Blaine sighed internally. Why could these two just not get along? Why was Kurt baiting Sebastian like this? And why was Sebastian baiting Kurt back? Blaine knew why- Kurt being defensive because Sebastian was a good-looking, talented musician who was just as famous for his string of high profile romances as he was for his playing, and Kurt had never liked it when Blaine made friends with other gay guys, despite the fact that Blaine would never ever cheat on Kurt with anyone.

Kurt always went on guard when he felt threatened by something, and Sebastian seemed to pack a double-whammy, as he was both a famous musician (something Kurt had always striven to be) and he was close to Blaine.

Sebastian, on the other hand, was responding to an attack by Kurt. Sebastian was already feeling vulnerable from his alienation within the orchestra, and Kurt was simultaneously trying to tear his only friend away from his while calling attention to the things that was keeping Sebastian from making other friends.

Kurt smiled like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. "Well, that's what I've always thought too, but apparently some people have other ideas."

Sebastian stared at Kurt hard then, and Blaine could tell that he was pissed off just from the set of his jaw and the glint in his eye.

"Fine. I'll play for you, then." He said through a clenched jaw. Sebastian threw open the lid of the piano, and when Blaine stood to give him some more space to play, Sebastian grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled him back down to sit.

"Stay, Blaine."

Blaine had no idea what to do, so he just stayed where he was, and watched as Sebastian began playing. His hands were flying up and down the piano keys, moving fluidly and with a precision that Blaine couldn't look away from. The hangover was doing absolutely nothing to hamper Sebastian's skills, and Blaine was rather embarrassingly in awe of his abilities. In the back of Blaine's mind, he recognised the song that Sebastian had chosen to play- 'Tarantelle in A flat', by Chopin. It almost seemed to jovial for the tense atmosphere that it was being played in, and Blaine was painfully aware that everyone else in the room had stopped to watch them and listen to Sebastian's playing, but Sebastian appeared to be tuning everything out, focusing solely on what he was doing. The usually happy and bouncy song seemed dramatic and frantic as Sebastian imbued it with his own emotions- at that time, anger- and Blaine was reminded again of the skill of the guy- was 24 too young to be called a man?- sitting next to him. It took a lot of talent to play a song and have it sound out exactly how you are feeling, but Sebastian seemed to be able to just that with seemingly little effort.

The song came to and end, and Blaine's ears were ringing, but not just because of the hangover. The final note rang out into the silent room, and Kurt and Sebastian stared at each other, daring the other to speak.

The silence was broken by Shuester's enthusiastic applause. "Alright, Sebastian! That was incredible!"

Sebastian didn't say anything, but Kurt gave a sniff of disdain and walked off again, saying nothing to either Kurt or Sebastian.

Shuester went back to his conversation with Emma about the night's songs, which left Sebastian and Blaine with a couple of minutes to talk before rehearsals started in earnest.

"I'm sorry about Kurt. Normally he's so nice.." Blaine felt a little ashamed of his boyfriend's actions, and felt like he should do or say something that could make up for it with Sebastian.

"Its ok, Blaine. Really. He's not doing anything I haven't taken before. Hell, I think I've done worse before. I'm just sorry that you're being pulled into the middle of this."

"What? You really don't have to make excuses for him. He's just.. I don't know.. I think he's threatened by you." Blaine shrugged, trying to find a way to explain it nicely.

"I know that, Blaine. Like I said, I was a child celebrity. I've grown up with people trying to show me up or cut me down to size." Sebastian shrugged.

"Well yeah, there's that..."

"What? Is there something else?" Sebastian seemed genuinely curious.

Blaine took a moment to think about how to best explain his and Kurt's history to Sebastian.

"Well, Kurt and I met in high school. And when we started dating, we were at the same school, and then he moved back to his old school, and... He asked me to move schools with him. And I did. So, since we were 16, I haven't really had any friends that weren't also Kurt's friends. We went to Juilliard together, and we joined this orchestra together... And now you're here, and you're my friend, but not his friend, and you were hitting on me right in front of him, and it spooked him." Blaine shrugged.

"Oh my god. Kurt is your very first boyfriend, isn't he?" Sebastian seemed genuinely shocked.

"Yeah. First and only." Blaine felt oddly embarrassed by this fact.

"And you've never even been friends with someone else, outside of him?"

"I've had other friends..." Blaine tried to defend lamely.

"But, no social life to speak of, that didn't involve Kurt?" Sebastian prodded.

"Uh. No, not until you."

Sebastian nodded sagely. "I get it, now. Yeah, he totally is threatened by me."

"Exactly. And he totally has no reason to be! I mean, we're just friends!" Blaine said.

"Well, we're friends, yeah. But come on, we're not _just _friends." Sebastian said evenly.

"What?" Blaine was shocked.

"Oh, come on. You know I find you completely hot, don't you? Why else would I have hit on you that first day of rehearsals? And then I find out you're also nice, and funny, and fun? And admit it, you've got kind of a crush on me too. Otherwise you wouldn't have been flirting with me last night."

Blaine was horrified to find himself blushing.

"I don't have a crush on you... I'm with Kurt. I _love_ Kurt."

Sebastian waved that away. "Yeah, you're with Kurt, and you love him, whatever. I get that. And I also get that you're not the kind of guy that would cheat- in fact, I don't think I'd like you as much if you were, and that's why I haven't tried to be anything but your friend. But there's a world of difference between cheating on your partner and having a crush on someone. Especially when you've been with someone for as long as you've apparently been with Kurt."

Blaine was still blushing, and feebly trying to defend himself. "I don't... We're friends…"

Sebastian sighed. "Yeah, we're friends. But just look me in the eye and tell me that if you weren't with Kurt, that there's no way we wouldn't have slept together by now."

Blaine looked up at Sebastian, right in his clear green eyes, and was horrified to find that Sebastian was right. Still, he opened his mouth to tell Sebastian in no uncertain terms that they were just friends, and that Kurt or no Kurt, that they would just be friends. No benefits. When Blaine found, to his horror, that he couldn't seem to make the words come out, he stood up from the piano stool, and marched over to where Kurt was standing without another word.

Sebastian sat and watched as Blaine slung his arm around Kurt's waist and held him close, without once looking back at Sebastian. He sat alone at his piano, and waited with a sinking feeling for Shuester to just start the damn rehearsals already.


	6. Chapter 6

6

They were in a new city, again. Philadelphia. It had been almost a full week since Blaine had stopped speaking to Sebastian. Sebastian would have called it a fight, but that implied that both people were mad at each other, and that was not the case at all. Blaine was mad at Sebastian, Sebastian was lonely and missing his friend.

The worst thing was, though, he wasn't even able to regret saying all that stuff to Blaine. He'd been honest. He'd laid all his cards on the table in the hopes that he'd be able to work out his feelings (such as they were) for Blaine, and that they'd be better friends because of it.

Did he want to sleep with Blaine? God, yes. Badly.

Did he hate that Blaine was out of his reach because he was dating Kurt? Of course.

Did he plan to scheme his way into Blaine's pants by breaking him and Kurt up? No. Maybe when he was a teenager, that would totally have been his style, but he'd learnt his lesson.

He'd been a mean, manipulative little bitch then, and people had gotten hurt because of that. He'd driven away his only friend then too, all because he'd never been told 'no' before. Never been shown something that he couldn't have. But he'd wanted Nick so badly then. Nick had been LeRoy's PA, when Sebastian had first started touring without his parents, and man, that tour was crazy. Nick was a little older, already 21, and Nick and Sebastian had partied hard in every town they reached. Sebastian learnt to drink, that tour. He'd picked up smoking from Nick. He had the hugest, dorkiest crush on him, and made no effort at all to hide it, even though Nick kept telling him that nothing could happen between them. Nick was working for Sebastian, and besides, Nick had Jeff. The boyfriend. But Sebastian wouldn't accept that, and spent six months straight working tirelessly at wearing Nick down, seducing him, until he finally cracked and slept with Sebastian. That was the stupidest, most selfish thing he'd ever done. The sex had been alright, but Sebastian had been a virgin, so what did he expect? But the worst thing was that Nick hadn't even been able to look at him after that. And then the tabloids got their hands on some blurry, grainy, shitty-ass pictures of them through the hotel window, and that was that. Sebastian had been outed, publicly and embarrassingly, and Nick had lost his job, and his boyfriend. Oh, and Sebastian had lost his only friend, if friend was even the right word, because apparently LeRoy had told Nick to take Sebastian out, and to hang out with him to 'stop him getting into trouble'. So, not only had that totally not worked out, Sebastian may not have even had a friend to lose in the first place.

But Blaine was his friend. Ok, yeah, they'd only been hanging out for a couple of days, but when you have zero friends before that, the curve gets set kind of low.

If he'd screwed things up so badly that Blaine would never talk to him again, he'd be right back where he started. Lonely, bitter, and totally friendless.

He'd already turned back to his antisocial ways- smoking more than usual, downing bottles of red wine at night alone in his hotel room. He felt like shit, both physically and emotionally, and even coming to rehearsals was becoming too much for him to handle. The rest of the orchestra had kept on ignoring him, and when they did talk to him, the passive-aggressiveness present in the room was stifling.

And now that Sebastian knew why people didn't like him, Sebastian couldn't help but be excruciatingly conscious of everyone whenever Shuester announced that they were doing another piano-centric piece, and they had a point- Sebastian was playing almost double the amount everyone else in the orchestra was. It wasn't like he was asking for it! He would be fine with playing in the background, if that's what was required of him, its just that Shuester seemed to be a little excited to have him in the orchestra, and therefore was pushing him into the spotlight a little to often.

He mostly spent his time boring a hole into the sides of Blaine's head with his eyes, willing him to just look at him, acknowledge his existence, for Christ's sake!

And then, to top things off, the magazine came out.

It should have been out days ago, but the messy and very public divorce of an ex-pop star and her superstar sportsman husband had held the public's attention, and held the story back for a while, but then when that had gotten old, the media had turned back to their favourite "playboy pianist".

'_**TOY-BOY TRYST! SMYTHE SPOTTED WITH SECRET LOVE'**_

Sebastian had been woken up to his phone ringing- LeRoy grilling him for details and then chastising him for not having been more careful when he was out in public. ("_You and some hipster kid! You both look stoned! What am I supposed to do with this, Sebastian? Should I be worried about you being on the road by yourself?")_ It took Sebastian almost half an hour to placate him, assuring him that there was nothing in that story, and that the pictures were taken out of context, and that Blaine was just a friend. LeRoy, once he had calmed down, promised Sebastian that he'd do what he could to kill the story, and to keep the AO and Blaine's names out of the realm of public knowledge.

Sebastian hung the phone up with a sigh, and glanced at the clock on the bedside table- 5.45. He sighed, realising that he'd been awake for too long to bother trying to get back to sleep, so he took a long shower, having turned his phone off so he didn't have to worry about anyone else trying to bother him with this crap. He'd been through enough of these scandals now to know the drill, and he didn't want reporters calling up and posing as his friends, trying to get information from him.

It was just past 6.00 am when Sebastian emerged from the shower, and he decided to go for a walk, and maybe assess the damage as much as he could. He took care when he dressed, remembering LeRoy's words from his first sex-scandal with Nick- "_If they wanna splash your photo everywhere- and they will- at least make sure you look good."_

He wore tight, straight, wine-coloured jeans, and a pair of black leather oxfords, that were a little scuffed up. He threw on an off-white t-shirt, and then went with a tailored tweed blazer, as it wasn't the warmest of days. Too early to worry about contacts, Sebastian put on his glasses, and grabbed a scarf, hoping to obscure his face a little, at least. But there was no point.

From the moment he stepped out of the hotel's front doors, he was bombarded by cameras flashing in his face, and reporters shoving microphones and recorders at him, screaming questions that all blurred into one. Sebastian knew better than to talk, even saying 'No Comment' was prohibited in LeRoy's book, so Sebastian looked down, made no eye contact with anyone, and pushed through the throng of media people, and kept on walking, even as they tried to follow him. He jumped into the first cab he saw, sighing in relief as he shut the door, making the noise dim a little.

"Where to, Sir?" the cabbie asked him in a monotone.

"The nearest newsstand?" Sebastian asked, already tired and regretting his decision to venture anywhere beyond his own hotel room. As the cab pulled away, Sebastian considered his options for today.

He could hole himself up in the hotel room, and let LeRoy deal with this shit himself. No one in the Adler Orchestra would care if he didn't show up- they would probably be relieved. But then, he should probably talk to them about reporters- they needed a heads up that they might be approached to rat on him… they didn't really know enough about him to get him into any more trouble, but some of them definitely disliked him enough to make some shit up about him.

This idea that it was best that he go to the rehearsal was solidified when he saw the magazine cover himself, when the cabbie pulled up to the newsstand a few streets away- you could quite clearly tell that the guy with him in the picture was Blaine.

Sebastian had been hoping that the picture was blurry enough that he could keep Blaine out of it, but a quick comparison on the Adler Orchestra website would confirm that Sebastian Smythe's mysterious 'lover' was first Violinist Blaine Anderson of the Adler Orchestra, and that opened up a whole new bag of problems.

Even though Blaine wasn't talking to him, Sebastian needed to give him a heads up, and assure him that he had people working on shutting this whole thing down. Sebastian bought a copy of the magazine for himself, so he could read it tonight and assess the damage, and then he walked to a coffee shop, and secluded himself away in the corner.

He checked his twitter feed first- lots _of "OMG! SOOooo Jealous! Wish I was wit Seb!"_ and _"WTF! CUTEST COUPLE EVER! New OTP Guyzzzz!" _from the fans.

The celebrity blogs were the first one's to come up with Blaine's identity, so that cat was well and truly out of the bag. Sebastian held back a snort as Perez Hilton declared that he approved of 'SeBlaine'.. Jesus Christ. That was just ridiculous.

His e-mails were mostly people requesting interviews, but Sebastian would leave those to LeRoy and Joe to sort out. If this went for longer than a couple of days, then Sebastian would probably end up going on some sort of show to deny the relationship. He could always use the time to plug the Adler Orchestra, which would probably be a good idea to bring up with LeRoy and Shuester anyway..

Half an hour later, and the public had discovered that Blaine and Kurt had a long-standing relationship, so there was a lengthy twitter debate going as to whether Sebastian was a home-wrecker or not. His female fans seemed to find this fictional affair between himself and Blaine to be _"just SOOOO ROMANTIC!" _and Sebastian couldn't help the laugh that escaped him when he saw that _#GoAwayKurt_ and _#SeBlaine5Eva_ were trending topics on twitter.

Sebastian saw the time, and realised that it was time to get to rehearsals, so he stood, drained his coffee, rolled the stupid magazine up and stuffed it into his breast pocket before heading out the door. He had to push past the group of paparazzi that had found him (thankfully not as many as there were at the hotel) and he had another cab drop him off at the Kiehl Ballroom where the show was on that night, and where they had been rehearsing. Apparently there was a larger group of paparazzi waiting for him there too, so Sebastian threw a handful of notes at the cabby with a distracted "Thanks", and then barrelled his way through the third crowd of photographers and reporters that morning.

The atmosphere when he got to the main ballroom was tense, everyone looked up at him when he walked in, and Sebastian realised that everyone but Shuester was there. Shit- he was 15 minutes early. Sebastian had been trying to show up at about the same time as Shuester lately, so he didn't have to do so much waiting around awkwardly. No dice today, apparently.

"Oh. He's here." Kurt Hummel's dry voice was the first thing he heard when he walked into the room, and Sebastian quickly made sure to don his metaphorical armour before he approached the stage.

"Nice to see you too, Hummel." He said sarcastically.

"Is that all you have to say?" Kurt glared at Sebastian from his seat. Sebastian noticed that Blaine was there next to his boyfriend as always, although this time it seemed like he was avoiding eye contact for more reasons than spite.

"Is there anything else to say?" Sebastian sat at the piano stool, but he sat with his back to the piano, facing everyone, because he knew that this conversation was a long way from over.

"Oh.. I don't know. How about 'I'm sorry for making the whole country think that I'm dating your boyfriend?'" Kurt's tone was cutting, and the glare he gave Sebastian could have killed. It probably didn't help that Sebastian scoffed, though.

"You seriously think I did this on purpose?"

"I think that you took Blaine out, got him drunk and tried to seduce him! And then when that didn't work, you didn't waste any time in cutting him loose!" Kurt stood up when he spoke, and he flung an arm in Blaine's direction, where he was sitting with his arms crossed tight across his chest, and resolutely not meeting anyone's eyes.

Sebastian was silent, eyes flicking back and forward between Kurt and Blaine, before he decided to address Blaine directly.

"Is that what you told him, Blaine?" Sebastian's voice was calm, and he was pretty much trying to understand the fact that Blaine had basically lied outright to everyone about what was going on. The problem was that Blaine's story was all to believable. Sebastian's 'sexcapades' were pretty common knowledge, and he had a pretty deserved reputation as a lothario/playboy type. Who'd believe that Sebastian was just trying to be a good friend?

Blaine's eyes flicked up to meet Sebastian's for the first time in a week, and Sebastian was surprised at how much he could read in them. There was an apology- that much was clear. Sebastian wasn't sure if it was an apology for the fight, or an apology for the lie… hell, it might even have been an apology for tripping over and having those photos become possible in the first place. The other thing that Sebastian could see in Blaine's eyes was a plea- not to tell everyone what really happened, to let him save face here. Sebastian was fine with granting him that. The last thing he saw was uncertainty. Blaine had no idea how to deal with what was happening, and Sebastian felt that it was his responsibility to get him out of this mess.

Sebastian, for the god-knows-how-many-th time, sighed.

Fine.

"Listen Hummel, if I wanted to seduce Blaine, it would have happened already. I'm not out to steal your little boyfriend's virginity or whatever. Those pictures are stupid. Blaine tripped over. I stopped him from falling. We were both drunk as fuck. That's all. I dropped him off at your hotel room with his modesty intact. The media just like a scandal- they made the whole fucking story up. That's all you need to know. My people are working on shutting this whole thing down, and it'll be over by tomorrow."

Sebastian ran a hand through his hair tiredly. Fuck, why couldn't he have just stayed in bed? He looked over at Blaine again, who was looking right back at him, his eyes shining.

"Thank you." Blaine mouthed at him, with a friendly smile, and Sebastian felt the muscles in his back and shoulders loosen, and, oh yeah, that's why he couldn't have stayed in bed today.

"Do you really think I'm that stupid?" Kurt's voice cut through the peace that had taken over Sebastian for about 3 seconds.

"What?" Sebastian didn't even try to cover the scorn in his voice.

"'The media make things up'" Kurt parroted, mocking Sebastian. "Please. They make up stories, Sebastian, but when it comes to you, they all seem like they have a theme."

"Seriously Gay-Face, what the hell are you talking about?" Sebastian asked angrily.

Kurt smirked maliciously, and produced his phone, clearly reading from it.  
"_Sebastian Smythe- Serial Homewrecker? The enigma that is Sebastian Smythe comes with a lot of labels attached to his name- child prodigy, virtuoso, playboy- but is another about to be added to his name? In light of his most recent gay sex-scandal- the twelfth that this writer can recall-'_ Twelve, Sebastian? My my.. '_a particular pattern has begun to emerge. Coupled with a serious fear of commitment- Smythe has rarely been seen with the same person twice-, his lack of concern of extreme displays of public affection- a particular incident with a phone-booth springs to mind-, Smythe apparently has a predilection towards people in relationships. Of the twelve mentioned sex scandals, not including the unconfirmed weekend getaway with the star of a hit teen franchise, nine of Smythe's sexual partners have previously been in committed relationships. In fact, Smythe's first sex scandal involved a close friend of the pianist's, who was in a relationship of five years, and this first scandal was what exposed Smythe's homosexuality to begin with, all at the tender age of 17. All of Smythe's very public and reckless sexual encounters has prompted some psychologists to enquire whether Smythe could have a very serious sex addiction? If the rumors are true about Blaine Anderson's involvement with Smythe, he should prepare to be another notch on the pianist's bedpost, as-_' Well. You get the idea." Kurt put his phone away calmly, smirking at Sebastian.

Sebastian couldn't move for a moment, as he tried to figure out what he was feeling at that moment. He was… mortified, of course. But more than that, he was… actually, he was furious. How dare that high-pitched little… twink presume to know anything about Sebastian? And that article- where had that come from? Why the hell would a professional musician choose to humiliate a member of his orchestra like that? In front of everyone? Fuck the professional side of that- what kind of a person uses something that cruel, that personal, to get back at someone?

And worst of all, Sebastian found himself thinking- was it true? And did he deserve this?

Sebastian stood up, and started walking out of the ballroom without saying a word. He glanced quickly over the faces of the others, surprised to find less malice aimed at him than he was expecting. He couldn't, however, bring himself to look at Blaine. As he was about to slip out the door, he heard movement behind him.

"Blaine? What are you doing?" Kurt's voice was confused.

Sebastian felt something warm and unexpected bloom in his chest when he heard Blaine speak up. "That was not cool, Kurt. Sebastian is my friend, even if we were fighting. And even if we weren't friends, you should know better than to act that way towards somebody."

"Blaine! I didn't-" Sebastian didn't stop to listen, but he did wait in the lobby for Blaine.

When the violinist emerged, he stood beside Sebastian for a moment. Neither spoke, until-

"I'm sorry-"

"Blaine, I didn't-"

They both paused, but it seemed that enough had been said, because Blaine grinned at him.

"Coffee?"

Sebastian returned the grin, feeling alright for the first time in a week. He found that the desire to fuck Blaine long and hard had even been tempered by the sheer relief of having his only friend back.

"Definitely."


End file.
